


Baba Bonding Time

by teakturn



Series: A Catfish Christmas [9]
Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Dadmonger, Domestic Fluff, Erik Has Feelings, Erik is a Sweetheart, Family Bonding, Fluff, Parent Erik Killmonger, Protective Erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25932562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teakturn/pseuds/teakturn
Summary: Erik is a damn good father and he has some damn good kids.
Relationships: Erik Killmonger & Original Character(s), Erik Killmonger/Fallon King (OC), Erik Killmonger/Original Female Character(s), Erik Killmonger/Original Female Character(s) of Color
Series: A Catfish Christmas [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1253591
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	Baba Bonding Time

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous said:  
>  _A catfish Christmas Erik bonding with his kids? 💜_

Erik had always wanted to be a father. He didn’t seek it out necessarily but in the back of his mind, he saw himself having one or two, three max, with a lady he didn’t mind being tied to for the rest of his life.

The birth of his son, N’Jemah had changed Erik’s entire world view. His work had more meaning somehow. He wasn’t just helping little boys that had a tough start, little boys like him. Now Erik was helping someone that could be his son, in another life. The plight of being Black in America seemed more perilous and immediate when Erik held JK in his arms.

As he grew older, JK turned out to be a sweet, curious little boy. He had Fallon’s eyes and Erik’s dimples and, like all Udaku’s, an intelligence that couldn’t be rivaled by anyone except his Aunt Shuri. Erik wanted to give his son the world but it wasn’t until his sixteenth birthday that JK’s dreams went much farther than that.

“Dad, look!” JK pointed at the prototype on his desk, soot-covered his excited face. Erik couldn’t help but cup his son’s cheek once he joined him, not at all interested in his latest invention.

“Have you eaten today?” He rubbed a hand against JK’s scalp roughly, “You know your mama would kill me if I didn’t feed y’all.”

JK ducked under Erik’s grip and laughed, “I’ll be sure to tell her you had us starving. Now can you look at this.”

Since moving to Wakanda JK had start ditching his royal tutors and spending all his time down in Shuri’s labs. It was hard for Fallon and Erik to punish him, they didn’t want to give him the wrong idea. They’d worked out a compromise with Shuri soon enough. JK’s hours in the lab were now determined by how much of his schoolwork he completed. 

That solved that problem easily enough but Erik and Fallon had no idea what JK did in the labs. Like most teenagers, he didn’t talk to his parents much, and they didn’t want to put Shuri in the uncomfortable position of reporting back to them on his activities. As Erik looks over his son’s design, a sense of satisfaction washes over him. 

“Is that a-”

“Vibranium core? Yes!” JK interjected excitedly. He looked just like his mother when he lit up like that and Erik looked on with a proud smile as his son broke down his invention and then built it back up again.

“I know we’ve been having issues protecting women and children from traffickers. And I just thought sending War Dogs in one at a time wasn’t maximizing our efforts and resources. This,” he gestured at the device, “Will allow the women and children to protect themselves.”

“Is it a weapon?” Erik had spent his youth playing with vibranium the way some kids play with magnets. He’d helped the crown by designing a vibranium spear that could cauterize while in battle.

JK scoffed, “No,” Erik’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

“Well excuse me. What is it then, Mr. Man.”

“A cloaking device, modeled after the one we used to use to shield Wakanda from the outside world.” JK moved his prototype aside and used his kimoyo beads to project his blueprints and plans on the surface of the table.

“The traffickers won’t stop. They’ll always find any camp we create, raid any villages we try to protect. This is both to hide them and send out a distress signal.”

Erik studied his son’s blueprints. He could see Shuri’s work here and there, but everything else was new to him. His son had created this? Pride filled Erik’s chest.

He grabbed JK and pulled him into a rough hug, “I’m proud of you, N’Jemah. This is amazing.”

JK beamed under his father’s praise, “Wanna go test it out? I’ve managed to fix that bug where it explodes when activated.”

“Uh, let’s wait until you’ve finished the device and then we’ll see.”

* * *

Erik had known it was a possibility he’d have a daughter. Adopting Libby and Maddy had finished their family and shown Erik a new way to love. Libby was a teenager and every day there was a new battle with her, but Maddy was still daddy’s little girl. Erik was trying to keep her that way for as long as possible.

In America, his work kept him jet setting from California to Wakanda nearly every week. He missed birthdays, graduations, and recitals. It ate at him to miss those moments. Fallon made sure to film everything but it wasn’t the same as being there. The only thing Erik wanted out of fatherhood was to be there for his children.

In America, he dropped the ball. In Wakanda, he was trying to do better.

Maddy had a love for music and art and Erik had the money to surround her with it. Every couple of months she wanted to learn something new. Painting and dancing, then singing and acting. Erik showed up to every recital, framed every painting, and got her the best singing coach in Wakanda.

One morning, while Fallon was visiting the tribes along the river, Maddy approached Erik in his study. In her hands, she held paintbrushes and she had a hopeful smile on her face.

“Baba, will you paint with me?”

Erik warmed all over at the sound of his daughter’s sweet voice, “Of course, baby girl. You wanna set up here or go down to the art room?” He closed his computer and stood from his desk.

Maddy thought for a second, “Hmm, can we go to the sunroom? I wanted to paint mama’s flowers.”

“Alright, then. Let’s go set up.”

Erik carried down the canvases and easels while Maddy carried the paint, brushes, and water cups. While she set everything up, Erik arranged for a servant to bring them snacks. Maddy was efficient in dividing the paint and water cups. Together they sat in front of their blank canvases. Erik tried not to be intimidated by the blank expanse of white.

Erik enjoyed going to galleries with Fallon and back in America he’d had a huge collection of pieces from all over the globe. Collecting art was different from creating it though. The thought of messing up dogged him and had Erik staring at the canvas long after Maddy began her first layer of paint.

“You okay, Baba?” Maddy peered over at his canvas, her small brown eyes wide behind her glasses.

“Yeah baby, I’m just thinking.” Erik decided then and there to nut up and paint, only bitches got scared of making a mistake.

They painted in silence for an hour. Erik took a short break to eat the snacks set out by a servant. As he ate he observed Maddy in her element. She was so young, yet her focus on the work before was unbreakable. What had started as a painting of a flower turned into a fantastical scene with fairies and snails. 

“That’s beautiful, baby girl.”

Maddy turned around and beamed at him, “I made this one,” she pointed at a fairy with one toe on a wilted petal, “Look like mama.”

Erik squinted. The details had yet to be added but the skin tone was the same.

“Good job, your mama will love it.”

Maddy continued painting while Erik finished his snack. When he sat at his easel he felt refreshed and ready for the challenge before him.

“Baba,” Maddy said.

“Yes, baby girl?” Erik was trying to decide on his next stroke so he sounded distracted.

“Am I a princess?”

Erik paused. He genuinely hadn’t expected her to ask that. He and Fallon had never thought about the specifics of Maddy and Libby’s claim to the crown. They’d made it a point not to give JK a title at birth and had done the same when they adopted Libby and Maddy. Though they never expected to spend the rest of their lives in America, Fallon and Erik agreed that their kids deserved a normal life outside of the crown.

Moving to Wakanda had blurred the line they created.

As far as the country was concerned, Erik is still Prince N’Jadaka. JK would inherit his title once Erik passed by virtue of being the firstborn but Erik had no idea what that meant for Libby and Maddy. Servants called them Princess and they lived in a palace. That was about as far from normal life as one could get. Even the media thought of them as princesses. Erik could understand why she would wonder too.

“Right now you’re my princess and that’s all that matters.” was the answer Erik finally settled on.

Maddy giggled, “Baba that’s corny.”

Erik’s eyebrow popped up, “Who taught you about ‘corny’?”

“Libby,” Maddy answered simply.

Erik sighed of course.

“It doesn’t matter what your title is, babygirl. The royal path will always be a choice, no one wants to force it on y’all.”

Maddy nodded and contemplated her painting, “I think this needs to dry.”

Erik studied the scene she’d created, the skill in her young hands was unimaginable. He couldn’t wait to frame this one and add it to his collection. She still had details to add, even Erik could see that, but what Maddy created was leaps and bounds beyond Erik’s. He’d finally settled on painting the entire canvas black and layering different strokes of gold and silver along it. There was no rhyme or reason to it so Erik decided it was abstract.

“I like you’re painting, Baba,” Maddy spoke up from Erik’s side, the melon in her cheek muffling her words.

“Thank you, baby girl.”

* * *

Of all his children, Libby was probably the most like Erik. Stubborn, headstrong, and driven, she had caused Erik more gray hairs than running a foundation and raising two other children ever would. They often butted heads but Erik wouldn’t change a thing about his relationship with his daughter. 

Most days he wouldn’t change a thing about her at all, but sometimes she came to him with a suggestion only a child raised by him would have. Then proceeded to fight for what she wanted when Erik said no the only way a child raised by him would.

Fallon, yet again, washed her hands of their battle, “It’s between you and Libby. Leave me out of it.”

Erik groaned and dropped his head against his wife’s shoulder. Fallon smelled good, a cross between some kind of butter and a rich floral scent. Erik wanted to sink into her skin and forget the stress of the world for a few minutes. But he had a preteen daughter to wrangle and a wife who refused to help.

“She wants to be a soldier, Fallon.”

“The Dora Milaje are a respectable band of warriors. You should know, you trained under them as a child.”

Erik smacked his teeth and rolled off his wife, “That doesn’t count I was a boy-”

“And Libby is the girl that boy raised. If you didn’t want her to fight you should have never taught her the weak spots on the human body.” Fallon kissed Erik’s forehead but he could hear her exasperation in her voice.

“She won’t have a normal life if she chooses this path. Whether we leave Wakanda or not she’ll always be tied to this land and it’s people if she joins the Dora,” Erik closed his eyes shut, images of his baby beaten and bloody haunting him. “We don’t want that for her.”

Fallon ran a soothing hand between Erik’s shoulder blades, “We won’t be able to protect her forever. That would be a full-time job and it would rob her of her independence. If you’re so worried about her getting hurt why don’t you train her yourself?”

And with those words from his wife, Erik found himself in the gym with his daughter at the end of the day for six days a week. He taught her proper foot stance, how to punch without hurting her wrists. The fundamentals he’d taught her as a child but with much more detail.

Erik refused to go easy on her and for her part, Libby seemed to appreciate that. Every victory she had was hard-earned. Erik saw the pride she took in those victories and the fire they lit in her brown eyes to do better.

During one such training session, Erik is teaching how to condition her legs for kickboxing.

“This, is a bamboo stick,” he twirled the rod in his hands a few times, “this is a broomstick made from Jabari wood.” This rod was heavier but Erik twirled it with ease.

“The primary weapon of the Dora Milaje is the spear. But I won’t be buying you a spear until your 18th birthday so wipe that smile off your face.”

Libby pouted her lips to keep from smiling. His violent angel, despite spending so long on the fundamentals Libby learned quickly and grew bored easily. She’d been begging for weapons training ever since blocking and countering a blow from Erik while they spared.

“We will eventually use these for their intended purpose but today, they’re gonna help you strengthen your shins.”

“So what, am I just gonna bang that thing against my leg?” Libby asked. She’d become impatient as soon as she realized she wouldn’t get to whack anyone with a stick today.

“Exactly,” Erik dropped down to the map and grabbed the bamboo stick with both hands. “What you want to do is rub the rod up and down your leg like you’re trying to stretch bread.” Demonstrating on himself, Erik ran the rod down his leg.

Years of training allowed him to ignore the sensation of the hard stick grinding against bone, but that didn’t mean it was enjoyable.

“You do this a little bit every day and you’ll develop the shins necessary to break a man's leg.” Libby loved the sound of that. She was a little aggressive with the broomstick against her legs, but she didn’t complain when Erik made her stand up and do kick drills for an hour.

Erik made them take a water break and stretch. Libby’s shins looked red and would likely bruise later on. But Erik was proud to see his daughter take pride in the pain. He can’t remember why he’d been so against her being a fighter, she took to it easily.

Erik wondered how long Fallon would make him wait before he could take her out to the range? The Dora Milaje were badass with their spears and all, but a gun was quicker in most cases. Libby needed to be a well-rounded fighter if she was to make it in this world.

“Have you been stretching every day like I told you?” Erik stretched his hamstrings as he spoke, enjoying the sensation of his muscles twitching from all the kicking and moving around.

“Yes, Baba,” Libby said, her voice almost devoid of teenage exasperation.

“Make sure you hydrate before we leave. Your mother would kill me if you-”

“I get it, dad, geez!” Libby whined, “You’re ruining the moment.”

Erik eased out his stretch with an exhale, “What moment?”

Fiddling with her shirt Libby shrugged, “I don’t know… it’s kinda nice I guess. I never really spent time with you back in America so…” she looked down at her hands, the hot pink wraps protecting her knuckles were almost fuschia there was so much sweat.

“I just like that we have this. You and JK have science or whatever and Maddy’s the baby so she’ll be cute for another two years,”

Erik chuckled at that, earning him a proud smirk form Libby.

She continued, “We didn’t really have anything before and now it feels like we have this.”

Erik bit his lip and tried to keep the tears at bay. Having kids had made him into such a fucking simp but he was an extremely proud father at the moment. He and Libby hadn’t always had the best relationship. Fallon insisted it’s because they were exactly alike but Erik thinks he just wasn’t trying hard enough to understand his eldest daughter.

He loved her, he wanted to protect and provide for her. But when it came to her interests Erik was at a loss. When she was a child it was easier, play with a few dolls pretend or to eat soft clay spaghetti and he was golden. Since Libby had started her puberty journey her father was the last person she got along with.

But now they had this. Maybe Fallon was right, maybe they had more in common than he realized.

“You wanna race back to the family wing of the palace?” Erik prompted. He had no idea what to say other than ‘I love you’, but he knew that would just embarrass her. 

Libby hopped to her feet and took off, “Last one there has to help mom with the dishes!”

Erik laughed at her back and took his time getting up. Yeah, she was his daughter. Luckily, as the father, he knew a lot of shortcuts back to their side of the palace.


End file.
